Yeah. For example, you should have around level 8 gear by the time you fight the Dragon Slaver. However, if you have weapons one level lower, let's say your launcher or primary weapon are blast base, then it becomes an overwhelmingly difficult fight even if you have level 9 shields.

If I do not need to fight other slavers to stop them from destroying the temple, what I like to do is hide inside a planet or other object near Hurin destroyers and wait until the Hurin ships destroy the Dragon Slaver. Dragon Slaver's target is always the playership and it will not seek anything else.

Probably less effective in 1.9a1 since planets or other similar objects no longer block attacks as reliably as they used to.

The Phobos was always one of the scariest to me. The lightning cannons melting your shield and then the phobos weapon 1 hitting your armor was always my experience. Any of the NAMI heavy launcher ships are pretty scary too but not necessarily bosses. Also accidentally flying through penitient shrine waves hehe.

Blast weapons are almost meaningless against the Dragon Slaver. There is a reason why dragging the Dragon Slaver to the Huari takes literally a lifetime to deal with because it's shields and armor are incredibly resistant against blast. It's harder to kill a Dragon Slaver with Blast, than it is to kill a Phobos with Thermo.

Thermo/Ion are the only weapons that can it down with ease. Particle is iffy, because if your main WMD weapon can't break past the incoming Antimatter projectiles, then killing the Dragon Slaver will take a long time.

I've always found the easiest way to deal with the Dragon Slaver is to Domina powers and fighting it with Thermo/Ion.

Otherwise, Makayev Red Strelkas with something like a Hanzo Blaster is an affordable way to do a "mano a mano" fight.

Resistant or not, Dragon Slaver will eventually die to more than a dozen slam cannons plus occasional howitzer fire from all of the Hurin ships and buildings swarming the temple area. (Player does not need to wait very long.) If player does not need to be in the open to kill Earth Slavers attacking the temple (because he got the kill base or kill lone Dragon Slaver path instead), the player can hide in the nearby planet or even inside the temple itself and the Hurin will kill the Dragon Slaver.

It does not matter who kills the Dragon Slaver. All that matters is getting its archcannon from its wreck then fixing it before player leaves the Huari (or turn around and kill them for more loot).